The invention relates to a receptacle with at least one base part which can be fastened to a wall or the like, a cover part which can be drawn onto said base part and can completely cover the latter in the installed state, and a catch resiliently mounted on one of the said parts which in order to fasten the base part to the cover part catches, in its installed state, in the other part and thereby prevents unintentional removal of the cover part from the base part.
Receptacles of this kind are known (DE-OS 25 35 894) and are used in many ways, for example as soap dishes, mouth rinse cup receptacles, ashtrays, multi-purpose receptacles, or the like, especially in household and sanitary applications. Depending on their purpose, these receptacles are provided with catches in the form of simple pushbuttons which can be pressed out of the catching position whenever the cover part is to be withdrawn from the base part. When the receptacles are exposed to the public, however, a theft-proof lock is often associated with the resiliently mounted catch in order to largely prevent any unauthorized removal of the cover part from the base part. In such a theft-proof lock, for example, the resiliently mounted catch can be disengaged only in a very specific position in which it first must be placed, and/or preferably only through a small opening formed in the cover part. To remove the cover part, therefore, either a precise knowledge of the theft-proof lock and/or a special tool are necessary.
One considerable disadvantage of such receptacles is that the catches are formed on resilient tabs provided on the base part or they consist of such tabs. Since the base parts as a rule are made in one piece from plastic by injection molding and the tabs are thin and consequently elastic strips of material, the base parts necessarily have a very irregular surface, i.e., one provided with openings, recesses, slits or the like. Therefore they are hard to clean unless they are removed from the wall or the like, and this is intolerable for hygienic reasons, especially when the receptacles are used in hospitals or the like.
Lastly, DE-OS 25 35 894 teaches to provide as catches in such receptacles thin pins driven into aligned bores in the base and cover parts and to associate them with locking elements formed on the base part in the form of resilient tabs, such that the pins cannot be pushed through small bores provided in the cover part into a cavity within the receptacle to release the catch until the tabs are pushed away. Such a design, however, not only does not eliminate the above-mentioned hygienic problems, but also it is undesirable for formal and other reasons, for example because when the receptacle is installed the locked position is always established, although this is not at all necessary in residential applications and often is not wanted, either.
The purpose of the invention is therefore to provide the receptacle of the kind described above with another kind of theft-proof lock which also permits the production of base parts with a smooth, regular surface.